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Racism in hagwon: 'Business is business'

When Anh Marshall graduated with an anthropology degree from one of America's top 20 schools, she said that after studying other cultures, she wanted to experience one first hand. Being a native English speaker, young, bright, and having graduated from a top tier American university, she thought that she was more than qualified for a job teaching English in Korea.

But Ms. Marshall explained that before she even entered the door of a Korean hagwon, she was confronted with one of the industry's chilling truths: unbridled racism.

"I had a bad experience before I came to Korea. I sent my resume and picture to a recruiting agency ... the woman told me that she really liked my personality, but it might be difficult for them to find a job for me because their schools preferred women with blonde hair and blue eyes. My ethnicity could be a problem.

"After (the experience with that agency) was over, I had to seriously rethink whether or not I wanted to live in a country where racism existed so blatantly."

The blatant racism that Ms. Marshall is referring to is also readily found on some of the country's most popular job websites for English teachers. Seeking "white blond native speaker," read an ad placed by Shin Ji Young of the Esther Native Language Institute. "White person only," read another posted by a recruiter who went by the name Mike Anderson. Still another repeated the common line: seeking "young white person."
These job postings read as if they were taken from the segregation chapter of an American history textbook, but are largely the product of an unregulated private education industry in Korea, where school owners regularly flaunt the rule of law in order to maximize profits," said a university instructor in Seoul. "Whether that means not paying teachers salaries, pensions, or their health care, some hagwon directors have even resorted to placing race specific ads for teachers."

Shin Ji Young, who placed the ad asking for a "white blond native speaker," immediately removed it after she was contacted by The Korea Herald. In a telephone interview she repeated the stance of many in the hagwon industry, that it is her customers, the children's parents, who demand white teachers. She explained that she is not racist; that she is just doing what she thinks is best for her business.

"Many children want to study with white people because black people are a little bit scary for our students ... They can see white people everywhere but they cannot see black people often."

Shin, who did not want to be quoted out of context, sent an e mail to The Korea Herald to clear up some of her telephone statements.

"I don't understand why I have to answer (to this issue) this time, but on the other hand, some foreigners don't understand the ad."

She explained that when she originally opened the school, she had employed one foreign teacher, a Filipino. She went on, claiming that whenever parents went to her school and saw the non white Filipino teacher, they simply turned around and left. Even though she admitted that some parents told her their children's teachers were black, she came to the conclusion that "people in Korea prefer native white (English) speakers ... When I tried to advertise again I wrote 'white or blond,' I had to meet many black people even though I did not want those teachers. I wasted my time interviewing them.

"I am not a racist person. I learned English from black people. So I don't care who works here, even if they are Filipino. But business is business. Business makes me choose my teachers."

Mike Anderson, who admitted to placing the "white person only" advertisement in a telephone interview, also immediately removed his ad after being contacted by The Korea Herald. He repeated Shin's argument that the source of the racism does not lie on the supply side of the English school industry, but on the demand side.

"Some of the moms were not satisfied with the foreign teachers. Frankly, that is why I had to place such an ad. But I made a big mistake and I am sorry," he said.

One of the main problems the country faces regarding racial discrimination, says Susan Kim, who works with the Migrants and Human Rights Team of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, is that since it is still not illegal to discriminate, those who do commit discrimination do not face any real punishments.

"The National Human Rights Commission Act is not enough because it does not clearly prohibit discrimination ... (The current) law does not make discrimination illegal."

The way the National Human Rights Commission of Korea works is that after a complaint is filed by someone who claims to have been discriminated against, the commission launches an investigation. The commission then seeks a mutual resolution and suggest an outcome that both parties may accept.

"We would then recommend the party correct policies and sometimes provide compensation ... (but) we do not have binding power. Some say it is a problem and it has to be improved."

The U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination agreed that more effective legislation needs to be passed in Korea in a report released last Friday. It recommended that "the government adopt further measures, including legislation, to prohibit all forms of discrimination."

The U.N. committee was also concerned that foreigners living in Korea do not share equal legal rights of Koreans. "The committee remained concerned that, strictly in accordance of article 10 of the Constitution, only (Korean) citizens were equal before the law and were entitled to exercise the rights set out in its Chapter II."

Kim from the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, said that the commission has been trying to get laws passed in the National Assembly, but that efforts so far have been unsuccessful. "We have recommended that the government adopt an antidiscrimination act," she said.

She said that it is common knowledge that all kinds of discrimination exist at private schools. But she said that there is nothing the commission can do until a complaint is filed. "By practice we know that there is discrimination at hagwon. One or two cases can be an example for the whole country. Hagwon teachers have a vulnerable status ... but there can only be improvements if people file complaints with our commission ... It is easy to file a complaint, just dial 1331."

Anh Marshall, meanwhile, did eventually find a job in Korea that did not count the color of her skin as a disqualification. She says that since her initial encounter with the recruiter, she has had a good experience here.

After viewing the ads, she said it is sad that schools do not stand up to the kind of parents who would pull their children out of schools because of black teachers. "If all schools refused to back down on this matter, parents would have to change their minds. Students will never get over their fear if they are not taught by adults that they have nothing to be afraid of. But I guess money is more important than moral character for those schools.

"The ads sound like something you might have seen in segregated America many years ago ... Americans have worked hard to overcome racism and prejudice, so seeing that kind of discrimination in Asia brings up a lot of bad feelings.

"Someone's skin color has nothing to do with how well they teach."


https://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2007/08/22/200708220041.asp

[indytrucks]

[KHerald]

comments/letters on the story are welcomed

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[Sody]

Well what do you expect? I'd say 90 percent of hagwon owners are complete idiots. I don't agree with discrimination but if you want to stop it then you have change the entire Korean culture and society. That is next to impossible to do for a foreigner. It has to do with them and their desire to change. Right now there is no incentive to change and I doubt there will be for the next 20-40 years. It's a divided country that is insignificant on an international level. If they can't even get along with their North Korean neighbours there is fat chance they will be accepting of people of color. Only after they unite with North Korea and become a tolerant society will they see the need to treat other races with respect.

If you really want to see discrimination against black teachers you should go to Canada. Toronto especially. I've lived in Canada for most of my life and I have yet to meet a single Black professional. Maybe one or two police officers, but that's it.

Sody

[reactionary]

Whaaat? Are there that few black people in Canada - the most professional job you've seen a black man work is as a police officer?

I find that a bit hard to believe...

[happeningthang]

This is one of the areas in which Korea lags behind the rest of the world by a good 40 years, but as Sody implies it's not unique to Korea.

How did Korean ajummas come to consider 'whiteness' as a neccessary attribute for teaching English anyway? Even so I've met black South Africans, Indian heritage teachers, and Kenyans and Nepalese doing privates - so there are employers and ajummas, who don't discriminate on race.

With the amount of competition in the ESL market in Korea, I can understand why hagwon directors want to make their own lives easier. It's not up to them to educate the entire country on discrimination. It's one of the great flaws of hagwons that they have to pander to parents' whims, but for the hagwons and recruiters it is just a matter of business being business.

[Sody]

Believe it. It's unfortunately true. In Canada there isn't as much open racism as in the US, it's more subtle here. I'm not saying there aren't any Black professionals but it's hard to find them here because affirmative action doesn't happen to the degree that it does in the US. There are no exclusive Black colleges in Canada either, not like in many US states.

In Canada there are many parents who would probably not want their children being taught by a Black teacher. Most would not put up a fuss like a Korean person but there is still a subtle discrimination that cannot be denied. I hear it's like that in many American cities as well but I'm not sure. I guess it depends on the area.

Sody

[widespread123]

For a country/culture that has been so discriminated against throughout Asian history it is amazing that such racism exists here. And we are not even talking about "reverse racism" back to the aggressor but racism on a certain group of people that has never (to my knowlege and logic) ever done anything to Korens.

I have been calling for a cultural revolution in this country for a long time (not that I really care being a waygook). Enough of this bubble-gum K-pop BS. Koreans need a hangookin Jimi Hendrix to come here and shake things up a bit.